Manga /
Dance in the Vampire Bund

Edit Locked

Advertisement:

Out of the blue, Japan finds itself host to a new "mini-nation" inside of the Bund, an artificial island off the coast. Mina Tepes, heiress of the Tepes Dynasty of Vampires, announces to the world that Vampires exist, she has paid off Japan's national debt, and that they are choosing to live in peace inside the Bund from now on.

The story is told from the point of view of Akira Kaburagi, a Werewolf and Mina's chosen guardian. Giving up a life as an ordinary high school student when Mina decides to out the entire vampire population, Akira has his work cut out for him, as Mina has pissed off just about everyone with her announcement — the humans want to wipe the Bund off the face of the Earth, rival vampire clans want to wipe the Bund off the earth, and even members of her own family want her for their own reasons. And Rozenmann and Ivanovic, two of the Three Vampire Lords, want control of the vampires, which they aim to get by marrying her.

Advertisement:

The series also has two side-stories which are as followed:

Dive in the Vampire Bund: A two-volume story that focuses on a new character who is unwillingly turned into a vampire thanks to the stupidity of his friend while visiting the Bund and his quest to find the cure before the transformation becomes permanent.

The Memories of Sledgehammer: A three-volume story that takes place after the end of the first series and focuses on Akira's friend, the beastman Seiji Hama, who finds himself trying to stop an assassination attempt while dealing with figures from his past.

The original manga was announced to end on September 5th, 2012 follow but was followed by the above spin-offs. In 2013, the series continued with the subtitle "Scarlet Order" which takes place seven years after the events of the first series and sees Mina and Akira once more facing a threat to the Bund, this time from human opponents. It lasted four volumes.

Advertisement:

Early in 2018 the manga returned with a new installement: Dance in the Vampire Bund A.S.O.

An animated adaptation was released in 2010 (trailer here, NSFW) by Studio Shaft. The animated adaptation was later licensed and released by Funimation in the US. Similarly, the manga has seen a fairly faithful release by Seven Seas Entertainment in the west.

Seven Seas distributes Kaoru Shintani's (of Area88 fame) Young Miss Holmes in which Mina makes a guest appearance in the Case of the Sussex Vampire (Nozomu Tamaki provides art for the arc's epilogue - which takes place during Mina's voyage to establish the bund itself).

Tropes:

Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Justified by the school's mysterious founder explicitly decreeing that "All operations, except for finances and education, will be managed by the will of the students themselves." Getting said founder to obey the dress code is less successful.

A major plot point of volume three. There is a chemical which reacts explosively when mixed with the vampire blood, so implanting a vial of it set to open with a cell-phone receiver turns the vampire him/herself into a (potentially Brainwashed and Crazy) bomb. The idea supposedly originated among human terrorists, a literal "suicide capsule" to prevent themselves from being captured or interrogated that, when exposed to air, would burst into flames and immolate the person.

In later volumes of the manga they start coloring her hair blonde in that as well. So this is one case where the dye job went back into the source material.

Age-Gap Romance: Nanami and Yuzuru are about 4-5 years apart. It normally wouldn't be a big deal, but Yuzuru is only 13 while Nanami is a high schooler at the time. Nanami initially believes her feelings for Yuzuru are wrong until he reciprocates and they become a couple.

All Myths Are True: Aside from the fact that vampires and werewolves exist, El Dorado (The Golden) and the Necropolis exist, and the myth of the Elixir of life of Kaguya-hime exists too.

Ambiguously Gay: Vera's sexuality is not a matter of any great discussion, but her past relationship with Hysterica is heavily implied to have been romantic, and some have speculated she was in love with Mina's mother.

Angie exploits it for all it's worth. As of volume twelve, it is no longer ambiguous, since his feelings for Akira are confirmed to be romantic.

Anti-Villain: Inspector Hama, who, despite being one of the assassins sent after Akira in volumes four and five, seemed genuinely friendly to him and actually lets him go at least once in order to not harm a bunch of children, and later does a full HeelFace Turn. In "The Memories of Sledgehammer," it is revealed that Rozenmann was threatening Hama to force the same to work for him, meaning that Hama was never truly a villain to begin with, anti- or otherwise.

Alphonse is revealed as this. While he takes the Fake Mina's side, his true intention is to build Akira into a warrior who can protect Mina. He falls prey to his own lies, desperately wanting the fake Mina to be real, but he genuinely loves Mina and aids her restoration.

Rozenmann's Dragon. He is a genuinely honourable man whose only real claim to evil is being Rozenmann's retainer, and even Mina seems to respect him. When Lord Scott fired a massive arrow at Rozenmann, this guy jumped in the waywithout a second thought.

Anyone Can Die: As the story carries on, it becomes increasingly apparent that this series has very little Plot Armor to go around.

Armor Is Useless: Mostly averted, as the Beowulf troops wear effective body armor that can take a lot of punishment. Wolfgang plays this straight, though: he goes into battle in just a suit and still kicks bucket-loads of ass without receiving a scratch.

Artistic License  Economics: This argument could be made about Mina's claim of paying off Japan's national debtnote specifically, about how that would actually affect Japan's economy at the start of the story.

Artistic License  History: "Tepes" is the nickname Vlad II Dracula was known by (which means "The Impaler"), not a clan or surname name.

Backstory Horror: Hama has this, as revealed in "The Memories of Sledge Hammer." It involves torture and human experimentation, for starters. Then there's Akira's having been forced to kill a close friend at the tender age of fifteen.

Fake Mina, Telomere's leader's past is only hinted at, making it an example of Fridge Horror. Mina's past is an example of the same, with a few more descriptions.

Badass Adorable: Akira's baby brother Yuuhi: seven years old, absolutely adores his "Onii-chama," and will rip out your throat with his teeth if he catches you being mean to his big brother.

Badass in Distress: Mina was spirited away by Rozenmann whose allied with Telomere. She managed to escape once but was taken hostage again. The second time she's rescued by Akira, Nanami, the Maids, and the Werewolf Senators, and she refused to sleep or eat the entire time.

The name of army corps of the Earth Clan, Beowulf, is an Old English kenning (a type of poetic name) for "bear" (it literally translates to "bee wolf"). (Whether this was an error or intentional is hard to say.)

Beauty = Goodness: The more powerful vampires can take on a "true" form that supposedly is a reflection of their inner soul. We get a good look at sixnote Duke Li's twin assassins only count as one total by the end of the first major story arc. Guess which one looks like a centerfold with optional bat wings and nominal Spikes of Villainy?

Mina lampshades this, or rather its inverse, during her final battle with Ivanovic.

The head of Telomere drives this home. Her base form is physically identical to Mina (appearance, scent, command over her blood-bound vassals, the works). Her Super Mode? Ain't.

Berserk Button: While Mina occasionally allows herself half-staged hissy fits or genuine tears among those she actually trusts, she does have a couple of things that will genuinely make her lose her composure: threatening or seriously harming Akira and/or Yuki. Especially Yuki, since Akira can take a lot of punishment. Angie discovers this the hard way. Never, ever call Mina's deceased mom a whore. Ivanovic also learned this the painful way.

Disguising yourself as Mina or doing anything serious to anyone Akira cares about usually brings about quite the reaction in him. Not to mention what happens if you do anything to seriously harm Akira in front of Yuuhi.

Bedmate Reveal: Done for rather squicky shock value by the fake Mina at the start of volume fourteen to Alphonse, what's worse is that they're both completely naked.

Beware the Nice Ones: Do not mess with the Fangless — vampires who willingly pulled out their fangs to preserve their humanity — because being hated by both vampires and humans made them develop countermeasures that make them an amazing guerrilla fighting force. For example, when Ivanovic invaded the Bund and started rounding them up, the Fangless responded by leading Ivanovic and his best vamps into a tight hallway filled with Razor Floss and dropping their entire apartment complex on the rest.

Big Bad Ensemble: Rozenmann and Ivanovic, two of the Three Vampire Lords, seek to wed and impregnate Mina Țepeș, thereby securing rule over all vampires and ensuring the royal vampire bloodline remains "pure" (i.e., not mixed with humans). The third lord, Li, is a Greater-Scope Villain; dangerous and powerful in his own right and also wishes Mina as his bride, but, unlike Rozenmann and Ivanovic, never orchestrates a plot to seize her by force. Later on, Fake Mina joins in; she starts out as a part of Rozenmann's plan to secretly kidnap and replace Mina, but once she plays her part in his scheme the two part ways, with her pursuing her own goal of finding the Elixir of Life and Rozenmann having no further interest in her.

Boisterous Bruiser: The Lords of the Earth Clan Senate, to the point where they send Beowulf's Elite Eight running just by showing up for a simple sparring session.

Boobs of Steel: Vera can kick all kinds of ass while still being one of, if not the bustiest woman in the manga. And then there's Mina's true form.

Brainwashed and Crazy: Lower class vampires can be "reprogrammed" to serve a different master and be controlled by them like slaves; usually when this is seen they're no better then rabid animals. Mina of course is against such a practice, but two antagonists in the second and third volumes have no such qualms.

Volume seven has at least two of them. Volume nine shows us a third, and a particularly tragic one at that.

Breaking the Fourth Wall: In volume one, when Mina says she'll only return a ring to Akira if he spends the night with her, when he freaks out over the idea she specifies she wants to sleep beside him or the manga would get canceled otherwise.

Break the Haughty: Rozenmann. His plan fails spectacularly: Akira is alive, Mina escapes him, and five elderly werewolves utterly demolish his army and his palace. He can't take any pride in their deaths and is left staring in disbelief at the ruins of his castle in something of a Despair Event Horizon which is revealed in "Scarlet Order" to have destroyed his sanity. The omake even has insult added to injury.

Broad Strokes: The anime. It somewhat follows the manga in certain aspects but for the most part changes many things as well due to the short episode count. This wasn't a studio decision though, the author gave his blessing for them to adapt the story how they saw fit.

Bullet Proof Human Shield: Mina's gone here a few times. Her being a small target, fast enough to rapidly close with a shooter's allies, and strong enough to juggle said allies around makes it a natural part of her Waif-Fu. (Also, a Stake-proof human shield is entirely plausible.)

But Not Too Foreign: This series loves this trope. Akira Kaburagi Regendorf, son of Wolfgang Regendorf, is half-German and half-Japanese. Yuuhi, his little brother is the same. Inspector Seiji Hama is half-Navajo and a sixth Japanese. Apparently, Gotoh and her twin are half-Japanese, as well. The Akira Fujisaki is half-Brazilian and half-Japanese.

Canon Foreigner: Mei Ren, who takes over Hama's role in the anime as he does not exist in that version. The only difference is that while Hama has sorta friendly rivalry with Akira, Mei Ren is actually in love with him.The anime's episode twelve changes this a bit: Mei Ren is Akira's EQUIVALENT, to another Mina, the "True Blood Legacy". Mei Ren is also of a lost weretiger clan, the "Forest Clan". And dies.

Colony Drop/Death from Above: The fangless drop their entire apartment complex on Ivanovic's army. Later, there is the Necropolis' self-destruct system.

Cute and Psycho: An oddly suicidal example. Angie (if his motive rant is to be taken at face value) believes that neither he nor Yuki nor Ryohei are as important to Akira as Mina is, and fears that they all will be forgotten eventually, unless they all die in a manner that would traumatize Akira enough to leave a 'scar on his soul'.

The fake Mina slowly exposes herself to be as vicious and cruel as the other vampire lords over the course of volumes ten and eleven.

Damsel Outof Distress: Surprisingly, Yuki, when barely able to move due to a brain injury and held hostage by the Big Bad, she risks her life to allow her to be put in a situation where she can inform Akira that the Mina in the Bund is a fake and Alphonse seems to be in league with her. It's an incredible act of bravery which impresses even the Big Bad.

Death by Childbirth: Since bearing a werewolf child puts a tremendous strain on a woman's body, it is not uncommon for members of the Earth Clan to have permanent physical or mental damage (and it is implied that death is also not infrequent).

Defrosting Ice Queen: Arguably Mina. She is rather aloof at the start of the series but eventually becomes kinder (though no less manipulative or vicious when pressed) as the manga goes on.

Doppelgänger: In the anime, Mina gains one when the leader of Telomere is revealed — to be a "sister" of hers (in a rather disturbing scene at the beginning of episode twelve, which also explains Akira's Laser-Guided Amnesia), with the goal of controlling both the human world and the vampire world. Mina's goal is just to establish equality, and a home for vampires — her doppelganger wants more, a LOT more.

In the manga, this doppelganger is apparently the head of Telomere. She shows up at the end of volume nine, has Mina spirited off as Rozenmann's eventual bride, and usurps Mina's rule. In volume eleven she revels herself to apparently be the real Mina. The anime was aired before this development came to light in the manga, so it's not known at this time if they were aware of this or if they just came up with it by coincidence. It turns out the doppleganger is the fake, for one thing, she could not activate an artifact that requires pure vampire royal blood, yet protagonist Mina, and even Rozenmann, could.

This also happens to Yuzuru at one point, as well as Vera. It nearly happens to Mina but is ultimately averted.

Driven to Suicide: Vera, due to the confusion inflicted on her by the fake Mina claiming that the protagonist Mina is a fake, she gets better.

Drop the Hammer: Compared to Beowulf's swords, the Lords of the Earth Clan Senate on the whole prefer hammers, maces and other bludgeoning weapons. They make perfect tools to take on the few werewolves still loyal to Ivanovic, who have been reduced to mindless and ravening but extremely powerful beasts.

Due to the Dead: The Beowulfs make certain to honor the remains of all fallen warriors, be they friend or foe. It was a load off of Seji's mind when he learned that the men of his who died at the hands of Beowulf were given proper burials.

Eagle Land: Type 2. One could be forgiven for thinking that the author has a scathing, undying loathing of the United States. In the original story, the US is controlled by Rozenman, from the shadows, until his organization's complete collapse at the end of Memories of a Sledgehammer, but by the time of Dance in the Vampire Bund ASO (After Scarlet Order), the pendulum has swung way, way too far in the other direction, with the US being openly controlled by an extremist anti-vampire group, so extreme that it was thrown out of Christianity, thousands of years ago, happily indulges in terrorist acts, like setting off V-X gas in a stadium attending the opening of the Olympics, and routinely holds purges of people for the "crime" of being vampires, even if they're fangless, and if you dare complain? Well, you're just a heretic who needs to be purged too. The American Citizens even call these folks "NAZIS" to their face.

We only see a glimpse of the fake Mina's "true" form in volume eleven, which consists of a gigantic crab-like claw and implies the rest is even more monstrous. It's completely revealed in volume fourteen.

Elegant Gothic Lolita: Side-character Alphonse Medici Borgiani has an entire army of these, and they are quite capable sword fighters too.

Embarrassing Old Photo: Mina has a photo album born of regular communication with Akira's mother; the results are inescapable.

Engagement Challenge: Volumes four and five are about Mina's utterly repulsive 'suitors' setting one up for Mina's hand without her knowledge or consent. The challenge? Kill Akira before sunrise. It gets played with when Mina bets on Akira winning for the right to chose her groom, who will, of course, be Akira. He doesn't know this at the time of the fight.

FaceHeel Turn: Angie. This could also count as a I Knew It! since he shows up a bit antagonistic to Mina when they first meet. Over what exactly? Akira.

Yuzuru appears to have joined Duke Rozenmann's forces, as he assists in Mina's recapture after she escapes from Rozenmann's castle in volume ten. However, the discovery in volume twelve that Nanami is still alive (her apparent death, at his hands, ordered by Mina, was the thing that made him switch sides in the first place) and that she still is loyal to Mina seems to have brought him back to Mina's side.

Fan Disservice: Loads on a number of them. For a particular example for some, there's Nanami and Yuzuru making out as Nanami turns Yuzuru, a TWELVE YEAR OLD BOY, into a vampire, albeit willingly.

Fantastic Racism: Very typical since the masquerade is uncovered. Most of the humans hate and fear the vampires, regarding them as little more then mindless monsters. Most of the royal vampires seen hate werewolves (making Akira's job much tougher then usual) and those that decide to live fangless (i.e. they don't wish to drink blood) are hated by the usual vampires, and the humans don't see them any better for their choice.

The Fangless are actually starting to subvert this; they're still the subject of racism from other vampires, but some have started interacting with normal humans and they get along just fine. Which makes sense, since they seem more human. That's already two reasons for the mortal populace to like them over most of the 'normal' vampires.

Faux Affably Evil: Duke Rozenmann is charming, urbane, smiles constantly, is the only one of the three suitors who actually seems to treat Mina with something resembling respect, and accepts his defeat in the 'Akira-killing contest' with grace and amusement. None of this should suggest that he is not a heartless, immoral bastard. In fact, he may be the heartless, immoral bastard: Rozenmann can be traced to almost every single antagonistic event in the manga, with the possible exception of the actions of Telomere (and even there he's not uninvolved). All in all, Rozenmann's affability extends only so far as to things that don't materially hinder him. When things don't go his way, he descends into hysterical anger and is more than willing to take it out on his nearest targets, loyal to him or not.

Fiction 500: Mina pays off Japan's entire national debt.note A sum of money in the trillions of dollars This doesn't seem to affect her overall wealth at all. She attempts to justify it in-series by saying that her society had existed and started to acquire wealth when humankind was just beginning, but it's still quite unbelievable.

Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: The official public face of the Bund at large is that it is just one more country with people living out their lives. Closer inspection, however, subverts this by showing that majority of the Bund's populace seem to be, if not "evil," then at least huge jerks. Also played straight in that there are several (Vera, Nanami, the Fangless) who really are harmless, or at least would be if left to their own devices. Mina herself, can be considered as such, if not for her sometimes ruthless tactics.

Full-Frontal Assault: Akira is much bigger as a Werewolf than a human, and he has no Magic Pants. Then there's Mina when she artificially ages herself when she unlocks her true power. So far, she's never worn any clothing when in that form. Also has a fondness for this in general.

The shape-shifting assassin hunting Akira in the fourth volume.

Vera in volume seven.

Gender Equals Breed: It's revealed that the daughters of the first and only pureblood female vampire can only give birth to girls, as the father of all vampires give this "blessing" to his daughter: as she was the only female among his children, she will only give birth to girls and those girls will only give birth to girls and so on. Because of that, it's strongly implied that Mina would only give birth to a girl.

Genre Savvy: At one point, Mina uses the movie Nosferatu and its depiction of Count Orlok as a reference when discussing vampires. Nosferatu depicted one of the most vicious and inhuman vampires in popular culture. Mina not only references it, but points out that it is a very accurate depiction of what far too many vampires are actually like. The woman knows very well she is in a horror story, thank you very much.

Girlish Pigtails: Mina's default hairstyle is to bunch in two tails. This is particularly the case for her "schoolgirl" look but even some of her formal "vampire queen" have it.

Go-Go Enslavement: Mina's only clothes while in Rozenmann's power is a thin babydoll that splits open at her pantyless crotch.

Harmful to Minors: It is unknown how exactly Mina's mother was killed, but it was definitely not pretty. The killers found her hiding behind a curtain, and if the original generation of vampires are going to survive, she has to bear the child of one of these fratricides.

Heroic Sacrifice: The end of the Akira vs. Mina fight. Some collateral damage in the form of a roof of a church — complete with cross — comes flying at Mina, who is protected from the mother of all stakes through the heart by Akira jumping in the way — and getting staked himself. Of course, a large cross through the chest isn't nearly as fatal to a Werewolf as it would be a Vampire.

In volume thirteen, Lords Scott, Ernest, Edward, Atonio and Connery make a final stand against Rozenmann's entire army to allow Mina's group a chance to escape. It works. Scott even manages to graze the smug bastard himself before succumbing.

In "Dive Into the Vampire Bund," Akira Fujisaki gives the only chance to return to humanity to, his love interest, Ruli.

Hoist by His Own Petard: How Hysteria is beaten when Nanami, whom she "reprogrammed" (and not to mention mercilessly abused), is secretly "reprogrammed" back by Mina and delivers the final blow to her, with her own weapon, no less.

Chapters forty through forty-four are pretty much all about this, especially when Sanin rapes Angie.

This is also part of how Rozenmann's plot fell to pieces. As well as the antagonists of the side stories and sequel.

Hollywood Tactics: Mostly averted in the series whenever possible. The Bund's security forces (and private army) have air support and armored vehicles, and the Bund itself makes use of countless surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missile launchers. Even the werewolves of Beowulf, despite all having melee weapons of choice, use assault rifles and body-armor and engage their enemies in fire-fights much like a human unit would, and they only use their blades when the situation calls for it. When people don't follow common tactics, bad things happen, such as when Ivanovic led his force into a maze-like apartment complex and got several hundred of his vampires wiped out by guerrilla tactics.

Hopeless Suitor: Akira's normal human high-school friend Yuki, whose feelings he turns down right before being taken away by Mina. Mina, in a moment of being a Manipulative Bastard, keeps her around as a friendly enemy and to rub her victory in her face. That said, they end up being best friends thanks to their mutual fondness for Akira and Yuki's novels, ironically enough.

Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Akira's pretty tall for a seventeen-year-old Japanese highschooler (he is a half-German werewolf after all), but not abnormally so. Mina's just that tiny — she barely stands to his chest, and it's even more apparent in his wolf form, where he towers over her. This is less true when Mina is in her true form, but Akira is still a bit taller in his human form.

Humans Are the Real Monsters: While the series generally likes kicking the notion of stereotypes in the balls, it seems to subtly lean towards this by the end. While a few vampires, namely Rozenmann, Ivanovic, and Li are horrible, horrible people, vampires for the most part are shown to be more self-destructive than anything. The worst we see of the citizens of the Bund is on the level of minor organized crime, and those uninvolved with such things are shown to just want to be left alone, even those who haven't become Fangless. Humans, on the other hand, are shown to form into lynch-mobs because of fear and jealousy, and murder anyone who gets in their way. Often, humans are a greater danger to vampires (and, near the end, each other) than vampires are to humans. On the other hand, the series also has some humans being incredibly kind, even in the midst of life-threatening chaos (and other really trying circumstances), so it is ultimately a downplaying than anything else.

"Us? 'Monsters'? Oh I think not. There is a far nastier, far uglier monster around than us. Go home and look in the mirror. You'll find it there."

I Did What I Had to Do: Mina takes this position based on the very hard decisions she has to take as leader of the Vampires in the Bund. For example, after blackmailing a politician with a threat of infecting his five-year-old grandson if he doesn't go away. She actually does have him bitten, but he is cured before he permanently becomes a vampire. Most situations where she has to act as a Magnificent Bastard are of this sort, and this is even lampshaded at one point.

I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Subverted. When Nanami is turned, she goes on a rampage, calling herself a monster. Mina and the others assume the cause is this trope, but Nanami explains that being a vampire is not the problem, what she hates herself for is the realization she had been sexually attracted to her twelve or thirteen-year-old neighbor all along, even when she was still human, vampire emotions being much more potent than human ones, and thus far harder to ignore. She comes around when Yuzuru returns her love, and everyone makes it clear they accept their love as real and valid.

The Fangless, those vampires willing to extract their own fangs are the ones that are serious about keeping away from the whole predator thing.

Most of Mina's motivation for enrolling in Akira's high school is experiencing the life of a girl who is not a vampire monarch.

Immortal Immaturity: Mina treats this trope like a yo-yo, going from pensive matron contemplating how she may be robbing her teenaged knight of his happiness to a bouncing teeny-bopper brainstorming with her friend over a Boys' Love story literally in a matter of moments.

Impaled Palm: The entrances to the temples in South America and under Mt. Fuji can only be unlocked by pure vampire blood, provided by twin blades impale the hand of the vampire in question.

Indirect Kiss: Akira and Mei Ren, in episode ten, via a piece of hard candy, which is shot from one mouth into another. It's an explotation: the candy was laced with a drug that inhibited Akira's ability to transform into a werewolf. This causes much hassle for him, especially after Mei Ren's true nature is revealed in episode twelve.

Instant Home Delivery: The Lorenzo Corporation, makers of the artificial blood known as Stigma, have an absurdly efficient delivery system. According to one of the official doujin short stories, a doctor once tromped an order for Stigma in the dirt on a hillside outside his clinic in a middle of nowhere community in Afghanistan and had two crates show up outside his door the next morning.

Interspecies Romance: Played straight with almost all the romantic parings in the series. Especially the leads: Mina is a vampire, Akira is a werewolf, and their affection for each other is mutual. Reinforced in the anime when Mina and Akira make a promise to each other that is tantamount to a marriage vow.

There's Yuki - in fact, the first scene of the manga (that doesn't read like a storybook) is of her confessing her feelings to Akira. It's unclear whether or not she completely moves on from those feelings, either. Even in "Scarlet Order" her other love interest is Shiva, a member of Beowulf's Elite Eight, not that she shows signs of noticinghis ''very obvious'' feelings.

Wolfgang and his wife also qualify, as do Gotoh and Hama and Akira Fujisaki and Ruli.

I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Yuki has this view, which is most likely how she deals with her present situation. The best insight into her attitude and feelings is given in chapter sixty-one, where it becomes apparent that her "beloved" is both Akira and Mina, for somewhat different reasons.

Alphonse takes this Up to Eleven. The only part of Mina's affection he wants in the end is just to be reborn as a flower she can wear in her hair for only a few hours.

Kiss of the Vampire: When Akira lets Mina drink his blood so she can regain her strength; he afterwards describes the experience as nearly orgasmic.

Fairly early in the series one vampire remarks that vampires drinking each other's blood is superior to any pleasure brought about by normal intercourse.

In the anime a victim of a vampire draining her blood (she later got the vaccine and stayed human) later remarked that it actually felt quite pleasant.

Lap Pillow: Yuki provides this for Mina in volume four after the chastity test.

Living Forever Is Awesome: These are a minority among vampires but they exist. Generally, speaking there are two varieties: hedonistic ones that enjoy the eternal youth and disease immunity, and more noble ones that devote themselves to a cause or a person. Veratos, Akira, and the maids (sans Nanami) live for Mina, and Mina lives for Akira and her fangless.

Veratos: With just one feeling, a vampire can live forever.

Lotus-Eater Machine: Mina goes through one in volume six. While in a life-threatening coma, she dreams she and all the other characters are ordinary people, her mother is still alive, there are no supernatural beings, and everyone is happy. She forces herself to wake up, right before she (as a grown-up) marries Akira.

Luminescent Blush: We get quite a few of these in the lighter moments. Yuki is especially prone to this, with Mina nearly as often. Nozomu Tamaki's drawing style makes her look adorable. Even Akira isn't immune.

Magic Pants: Beowulf wears these, usually but not always accompanied by Magic Body-Armor as well. Justified in that it was designed to be able to conform to both a human's and a werewolf's body.

Major Injury Underreaction: Very common, especially in werewolves. Akira's remarks after his battle with Mina indicate that even serious injuries for a werewolf are simply not all that painful unless inflicted by a silver weapon. Akira remarks the wound where he was stabbed by a silver sword hurts a lot more than where his body was run through by the steeple of a church. This is somewhat justified given that these injuries would not generally be fatal to the beings involved.

Manchurian Agent: The Mole in Mina's palace is revealed in volume seven to be one of these. She's just a random maid, infected with a nanomachine that causes her to believe that any order she receives comes from Mina.

Nanami becomes one in volume nine, nearly destroys the Bund before Mina forces Yuzuru to kill her. His anger over this is the fuel behind his FaceHeel Turn.

Try maneuvering the biggest opponent of the Earth Clan among her followers into giving up any hope of taking over her personal guard. Only, that very opponent is far worse and executes the entirety of his own forces within the Bund afterwards as a precautionary measure prior to reporting to Mina.

The "real" Mina is the worst of these and in a purely malicious fashion.

Marshmallow Hell: Yuzuru-chan gets a good dose of it in episode ten of the anime.

MayflyDecember Romance: If Duke Ivanovic is any indication, Mina will actually grow old eventually, and Akira's regeneration will probably extend his lifespan some decades beyond the human norm, but we are still looking at life expectancies differing by an order of magnitude here. On the other hand, Ivanovic may not be a true example of vampire aging, as Mina states he has been in his decayed form for thousands of years, apparently a result of his own rotten soul. The manga also addresses how vampire werewolves were once possible, creating the possibility of Akira being able to stay with Mina in this way.

A sidestory collection included some information about relative werewolf/vampire lifespans. Old age for a werewolf is 150-200, and most of them don't live that long because they tend to go into dangerous careers. Mina is already over 400 years old. Of course "the kiss of the rose" allows for werewolves to more than double their normal lifespans too (the lords of the Earth Clan Senate were all alive before Mina was born).

Meaningful Name: Akira, pledged to serve the Princess of Vampires from birth, has a name meaning "Daybreak" (which, for vampires, would connote something along the lines of Horrible Burning Death). Make of it what you will.

Also possibly a stealth Shout-Out: Akela, the leader of the wolf pack in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, becomes "Akira" when spoken through Japanese phonetics. (The name also means "single, solitary" in Hindi, which rather accurately fits Akira's personality as well, after Graham's death.)

Mercy Kill: Akira is forced to do this to one of his childhood friends when said friend (already brain-damaged and incurably insane) ends up pumped full of what amounts to Werewolf-grade PCP and is sent to assassinate Mina.

My Master, Right or Wrong: Gerhard, Rozenmann's werewolf retainer. He knows Rozenmann is quite the piece of work, but he's still the master Gerhard's sworn to, even if Gerhard has to stoop to dishonorable tactics.

New Transfer Student: Mina. No, she does not seem to regard having secretly founded the school and commissioned the construction of the campus to her specifications as causing a conflict of interest. Later, some fangless children join in.

Ninja Maid: The second chapter starts off with Mina's maids absolutely wrecking a squad of special forces soldiers. One of them rising back up again after getting mowed down by gunfire deserves a CMOA all its own.

Nipple and Dimed: Zig zagged. The art bounces back and forth between depicting both Minas with nipples in their default forms, although far more often not than with.

No Biochemical Barriers: Averted: it's explicitly mentioned that the only disease that humans and vampires have in common is tooth decay. Some vampires even like drinking the blood of the diseased, because it alters the flavor.

Noble Wolf: The Earth Clan in general, and Beowulf and the Elite Eight in particular. They have a Proud Warrior Race Guy culture and has been loyal to Mina's family for centuries.

No One Could Survive That!: Played straight with Sanin (skull crushed and thrown off a cliff), much to Akira's regret. Beowulf learns their lesson, and when they cannot find the body of Angie (whose throat ripped to ribbons and then fell off a skyscraper) they promptly warn Mina of his probable survival.

In Memories Of A Sledgehammer, Blackwater responds to a failed car-bomb attack by panicking and gunning down all the nearby traffic when the locals are unable to get out of the way due to a traffic jam, and they have to be stopped by force.

Dance In The Vampire Bund (A.S.O.) begins with the U.S. attacking Mina and Akira with a cruise missile while the two are touring a lighthouse. What makes this a war-crime is that Mina is the sovereign leader of a country officially recognized by the U.N..

Older Than They Look: Many vampires, but notably Mina, who appeared to be ten or so when she met Akira as an infant. He is now sixteen while she hasn't really changed.

Anna, one of the Fangless kids in the volume five, looks four or five. She's explicitly said by Jiji to be the oldest of the three and actually goes to high school, in Mina and Akira's class. This is also responsible for a Funny Moment in the volume five omakes.

Omake: Each volume features one or more, in yonkoma format. They generally revolve around Mina's maids, and are quite funny until the plot takes a serious turn for the worse, when the humor becomes mixed with drama. These eventually turn into background events that prop up the main story.

One Steve Limit: Averted. The protagonist of the Dive Into The Vampire Bund sidestory is also named Akira, though written with slightly different kanji. This becomes a plot point when the main series Akira needs to escape the Bund. Dive Akira doesn't disappear either.

Our Vampires Are Different: Some vampires remove their fangs and become "Fangless," and are hated by both humans frightened of vampires and vampires contemptuous toward those who do not embrace the predatory life-style.

It is clear from the whole "attending a Catholic School thing" (with nuns, no less) that someone doesn't have an issue with crosses.

Vampirism in this story is transmitted simply through feeding rather than a blood exchange. The change takes seventy-two hours to complete and can be stopped if a vaccine is taken within forty-eight hours of being bitten. Vampires either drink blood or a synthetic substitute for blood called Stigma; vampires without blood or a substitute become weak and ravenous for blood over time and will eventually die if thy continue to lack nourishment.

Vampires also don't need to be the merciless predators as shown in other places as well. The Fangless children get along perfectly well with humans, for example — as does any vampire with a ideal to hold onto (Mina herself, Nanami, Vera, etc.) Only those without a strong belief become hedonistic animals, but then again, ordinary humans can become the same in the same way.

'True Blood' vampires such as Mina and the Great Lords can also sexually reproduce, which means they don't need to convert in order to propagate. Too bad females can only have one child and there's only one female.

Out of Focus: After the initial series publication Ryohei and Yuuhi (Akira's best friend and werewolf younger brother respectively) as well as Tatiana simply vanish, to despite their involvement in the plot and relationship to the other characters, furthermore, as of "Scarlet Order," they are the only characters significantly involved in the main plot to do so, since others are (at bare minimum) mentioned.

Panty Shot: Mina tends to wear skirts and dresses that are very short, so these happen quite frequently.

Parental Abandonment: A short scene shows Yuzuru noticing that Nanami's parents are moving away after their daughter was turned. Yuzuru's mother was already nonchalantly practicing neglect, which is what brought him and his aforesaid childhood friend together. Even after Yuzuru comes home with Yuki and his mother is informed that Yuzuru was attacked by a vampire, she only tells Yuki that she'll let her take care of him; this woman would make a lizard proud.

Pietà Plagiarism: Wolfgang with Akira in the end of volume five. Subverted in that Akira was only wounded and recovered completely, thanks to inspector Hama's help.

Pinky Swear: Akira and Mina make one to seal The Promise at the end of the anime. It's tantamount to a vow of marriage; Akira asks as his wish from the Princess that she be with him always; she agrees and says that "their lives will be entwined until one of us dies."

Poor Communication Kills: A great deal of mess and violence could have been avoided if Mina had just sat down with Akira and explained in detail what she was intending to do. But instead of explaining things, she basically told Akira, "What? Did you think I was nice? I'm a monstrous vampire, what did you expect me to do?" and then got pissed when his doubts became significant.

This was not a unique occurence. Some of the biggest strains on Mina's and Akira's relationship are caused by one of them either hiding something from the other for their own good or putting their foot in their mouth. It's not that they don't have valid reasons for any of this, but they end up taking it Up to Eleven almost every time. To be fair, sometimes excrement hits the fan before either could say anything, but that hardly accounts for the other eighty percent.

In volume eleven, the Mina doppelganger reveals to Yuki that the confrontation between Mina and Akira hurt the two more than anyone could imagine and that she intends to use the emotional damage to play on Akira's loyalties.

Princesses Rule: Mina is addressed as princess but holds the position of queen.

Public Secret Message: Mina makes a public announcement, speaking in an ancient Sumerian as a challenge to another vampire, but with fake subtitles in Japanese.

R-Rated Opening: The OP of the anime and the first chapter of the manga both provide ample warning about potentially objectional aspects of this work.

Rape as Drama: This shows up a few times, although mostly as subtext. First, there's the vampire attack in the church has rape undertones (although this could be due to the way being bitten feels), and in the anime, especially, it pretty much goes past undertones.

The virginity test, although it's not rape, given the circumstances, is a form of aggressive domination of a female by multiple males through sexual means.

Angie is raped in chapter forty-one.

Ivanovic does his best to assualt Mina in volume nine, and tries again in volume ten after assimilating with his shapeshifing assassin. Of course, by this point the Telomere leader has replaced Mina.

Really 700 Years Old: Mina is the poster child, since she's at least four hundred years old. She still looks about twelve, though.

Turns out this also happens a lot among natural-born vampires: they can age naturally, however the first time they ever use their vampiric powers, they become permanently locked at that age.

Right Behind Me: Akira, right behind Mina as she and Yuki plot out the next step in the creative process in Yuki's Boys Love story at the end of chapter thirty-three. Hilarity Ensues.

Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Since Mina literally owns the school, she could do whatever she wants, however, the only thing she does with this that's for her own sake rather than to advance her agenda of improving human-vampire relations is to deliberately ignore the rules about acceptable modifications to school uniforms — and make her alterations more obvious when someone calls her out on it.

Smug Snake: Really, Rozenmann tries to be a Magnificent Bastard, but when he's outmaneuvered, he won't take it well. He's not as smart or in control as he thinks he is and will not react well to realizing that, as his temper tantrums in volume twelve prove.

So Proud of You: The look on Wolfgang's face when he carries Akira to the infirmary along the saluting ranks of the Earth Clan.

Subverted in the anime This entire scene is changed. Instead of Akira making it to the throne room, the Three are forced to kneel in front of Mina, acknowledging her authority. Mina then leaves the throne room, and gradually hurries to where Akira is entering the castle. At the end she's running full-tilt, and leaps into Akira's arm. Akira asks her to smile for him, she does and he collapses. She holds his head in her lap, laying on the floor with him heavily wounded, while Wolfgang calls for a four-howl salute from the other members of Beowulf stationed there in full uniform, carrying swords. In the next scene, he's had his arm reattached and is looking at Mei-Ren's grave in the Cradle.

Stalker Shrine: Mina has a small private cubbyhole that contains her true personal treasures. It contains some old furniture, an antique gramaphone, a few other knicknacks, and many, many photos of Akira.

Stalker with a Crush: Angie is revealed to be this to absurd and creepy levels where Akira is concerned.

Super Mode: Vampires are capable of assuming a "true form" which is the ultimate expression of their power and usually involves turning into a monstrous form. In Mina's case, she turns into a buxom adult blonde who looks a lot like her mother, with a Witchblade-esque carapace (with optional wings) that partially cover her arms and legs, and, usually, little else. It's also the form that she will do anything to avoid revealing to her political rivals.

Of course, there's also the Earth Clan. A Super Mode is pretty standard for any werewolf, after all. And the (anime-only) Forest Clan? Who can partially transform? (Like the Earth clan doesn't.) And whose fur is bright yellow with some black striping?

Take That!: In Dance In The Vampire Bund (A.S.O.), Mina Tepes decides to get her news and information from Fox News, and mentions them by name. While she openly decries what she sees as their "right wing" ideology, she also mentions that she chooses to watch them because their reporting is the most accurate. It's a Take That! both ways!

Technical Pacifist: Akira, although not by choice; thing is, in his case it is a mostly subconscious result of his traumatic past, rendering him unable to cause anyone any sort of lasting harm. Ultimately he goes back and forth between being this and being a Broken Bird depending on his present state of mind.

This Is Gonna Suck: While the problem is not as immediate as is typical for this trope Akira says "This isn't gonna end well," when Mina is introduced as a New Transfer Student at his school.

Undead Child: Vampires turned before puberty? We have plenty. Pint-sized horrors that invoke feelings of the natural order being defiled in all who see them? Not so much.

Undying Loyalty: All of Beowulf for Mina, especially Akira. Vera for Mina as well, being a surrogate mother to her. Then you have Rozenmann's werewolf servitor, Gerhard, who seems to know that his boss is an immoral snake, yet feels compelled to obey him regardless.

Unequal Pairing: Royal scion in love with her head bodyguard's teenaged son? Raises almost as many eyebrows as what Mina and Akira actually look like together.

Unwanted Assistance: Averted when Lord Scott tells Angie not to interfere in his final battle. While they've chosen different leaders, they're still wolves and Angie cannot sully a warrior's last stand. Angie is driven to tears by his grandfather's words.

Vampire-Werewolf Love Triangle: First we have Akira/Mina/Yuki, which is somewhat unusual for this trope in that the relatable teenage girl is one of the rivals drooling over the studly teenage werewolf alongside the cradle-robbing vampire queen (who winds up becoming her best friend).

Then there is Mina/Akira/the Royal Three; and in this case there is no love between the Royal Three and Mina, it's more of a power grab than anything else.

Then of course there's Mina/Akira/Angie, which, unlike Mina/Akira/Yuki's Type 11, is very much a Type 4.

The Voiceless: Yuki, as a result of brain damage suffered from Angie's attempt to kill her. She is able to get her voice back in volume fourteen, just in time to save Mina from being killed by the fake Mina.

Wham Episode: The end of volume eight, when it's revealed that Angie has betrayed Mina and the Beowulf, nearly killed Yuki, and sold Mina's secret to the other vampire lords out of his twisted love for Akira.

Volume nine in general, and chapter fifty-three in particular. Lord Ivanovic launches a full scale, multi-pronged invasion to secure the Bund and Mina's postpubescent Super Mode (complete with execution of Fangless). This ends in Mina and Akira killing Ivanovic in battle deep beneath the island, however, the whole thing was a distraction and Lord Ivanovic an Unwitting Pawn. Turns out that Nanami was infected by the Pied Piper a couple of volumes back and controlled during said fight, forcing Mina to — not kill her, that would not be traumatizing enough — command Yuzuru to kill her before she overloaded the nuclear reactor beneath the Bund and blew the whole place sky high, irradiating metropolitan Tokyo to boot. It turned out that the primary motive behind that stunt was to separate Mina from her bodyguard and rattle her badly enough for the leader of Telomere to ambush her personally and pull a switch.

Who Wants to Live Forever?: Played with. The major reason vampires aren't in complete control of the entire world is that most of them find eternal life so hard to deal with that they behave like suicidal lunatics in an effort to find some kind of sensation; it's so bad that within a matter of months of the Bund's settlement, around ten percent of the population have already died one way or another. The level-headed, vaguely happy vampires are the ones who have found something to hold on to that helps them cope with eternity (the most prominent example being Mina's love for Akira).

Widget Series: Whether it applies to the manga or not, just keep in mind that Shaft is doing the anime.

Wolverine Claws: The weapons used by the twin assassins sent by the Li family head to kill Akira.

Yaoi Fangirl: Yuki's latest novel is apparently a Boys' Love story, and the protagonist is based on Akira. Also, Mina (although she didn't understand some of the, er, "advancedvocabulary" at first) absolutely loved this story when she read it, to the point of personally translating it into Latin, the official language of the vampire world, so it could be published in the Bund (make of that what you will). Nero got a lot out of it as well, seemingly being a full-blown otaku.

In chapter 33, Mina puzzled out that the book is essentially about her boyfriend's romance with another man and that this made her like it more, and even started actively contributing to the 'creative process.' Upon discovering this, Akira was not amused.

You Shall Not Pass!: Volume thirteen, the Werewolf Elders pull this on Rozenmann's entire army; not a single one gets past.

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy